Charley is a PhD researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. She is supervised by Dr Brant Walkley and Professor John Provis and is a part of the Sustainable Materials at Sheffield (SMASH). She also has industrial supervision from Sellafield Ltd. by the Encapsulant Integrated Research Team and the Intermediate Level Waste Packaging Development Centre of Expertise.

Charley’s research focuses on resolving reaction mechanisms, kinetics, and mass transport in radionuclide-loaded geopolymer cement wasteforms, for encapsulation of intermediate level radioactive waste. This is part of the GREEN (Growing skills for Reliable Economic Energy from Nuclear) CDT programme, which aims to tackle issues across the entirety of the nuclear fuel cycle. Her PhD research is funded by Sellafield Ltd., and an ESPRC DTP scholarship.

Charley obtained her Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sheffield in 2021. Her Masters research project focused on life cycle assessment of novel materials for plastic water bottles. Furthermore, in summer 2019, she undertook a SURE (Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience) project in the department with Dr. Rachael Rothman. Her project was life cycle assessment of the plastic cups used at the university’s bar and club, to aid decision making and helping the university to make greener choices. This project inspired her love of research and ultimately led her to her PhD position! Charley is also a Grantham Scholar, as part the training programme at the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures.